The present invention relates to hair curling appartus in which stretchable elastomeric cords are used to hold the curled hair tresses against the curlers.
A variety of forms of such apparatus have been suggested as evidenced by U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,395,965; 2,677,380; 2,896,638; 3,045,685; 4,108,183 and 4,515,171. Millions of hair curling devices have been and are being used with generally satisfactory results both by persons curling their own hair at home and by professional operators in beauty shops.
However, as a professional beauty shop operator, I have found that all the hair curling devices I have used fail to give the best possible results for a number of reasons.
First, the outer surface of the curling rod often fails to contact some of the hairs of the tress being wound up onto the rod, resulting in the tress being unevenly wound onto the rod or painful pulling of the hair on unwinding.
Secondly, many rods fail to provide means to insure that the tress wound upon the curling rod will receive and be permeated first with the waving solution and then with the rinsing water.
Thirdly, and by far the most important, existing devices do not permit the operator or user to precisely locate the desired position of the elastomeric cord across the tress wound upon the rod. The operator usually desires the cord to lie over the hair last wound upon the rod so that no portion of the wound tress will subsequently become unwound until the cord is removed.
Fourthly, many curling devices do not provide quick, simple and positive locking of the stretched cord into the opposite end of the curling rod.
I have invented an improved hair curling rod assembly which overcomes the foregoing deficiencies. By providing a curling rod with a series of similar raised ridges in its outer surface which run generally parallel to each other from one end to the other end of the rod, my rod will contact and retain the individual hairs evenly and without painful tangling of the tress being wound upon the rod or later unwound.
By providing four rows of spaced drain holes running the length of each rod, adequate circulation of the waving solution and rinse water throughout each wound tress is assured.
Most important, by having one end of the elastomeric cord anchored at the middle of the closed end of the rod and by providing a series of cord-holding grooves spaced around the rim of the closed end of the rod, the operator is able to precisely locate and fix the position of the cord across the wound tress. And by having the opposite end of the cord secured within the center of a plug which fits into the opposite end of the rod, the operator can be sure that the cord will lie across the wound tress parallel with the central axis of the rod.
Lastly, by securing the opposite end of the cord within a cylindrical plug which fits securely within the open end of the rod, the operator is insured of a quick and easy locking of the cord in its desired position and that the cord will not slip out and release its grip on the wound tress during subsequent waving and rinsing of the hair.